Barratts wants to build ‘up to’ 65 houses

Barratt Homes has presented plans for a revised outline planning application to build houses at Green Pits Lane in Nunney.

Barratt Homes originally planned to build up to 100 houses on this field near Glebelands and Green Pits Lane

An Extraordinary meeting of Nunney Parish Council was held in Nunney village hall on Wednesday 21 October.

The only item on the agenda was a presentation by Pegasus Group and Barratt Homes regarding a proposed development at Green Pits Lane.

At the meeting, which was styled a Pre-Application Presentation, the developers explained that they are thinking of putting in a revised outline planning application.

This aims to replace their original application for up to 100 homes on the site, which was rejected by Nunney Parish Council, Mendip District Council and the government inspector appointed to run a public inquiry into the rejected application.

Minimum

Barratt Homes’ proposed Green Pits Lane site in Nunney

Last time planning was refused on the grounds that the development was too large. That’s why Parish Council and members of the public who attended the meeting were keen to hear how many homes were proposed this time.

The current Mendip District Plan calls for 54 new homes in Nunney and Barratts obviously see this as a minimum.

They would like to build 65 homes on two-thirds of the site, leaving the eastern one-third as agricultural land.

The developers want to retaining an option to buy should planning permission look feasible.

Barratts refused to say when the option will expire, but said that further planning permission was unlikely given the history of previous failure.

Affordable housing

The new scheme would involve a mixture of 1-, 2-, 3-, 4- and 5-bedroom homes with 30% planned to be affordable housing.

Barratts would seek a Housing Association partner to manage the affordable housing section.

The other major changes from the previous proposal are to make the only vehicular access to be at the southern edge – although in one of the documents presented to the Parish Council this was still shown as being on the northern side – and to increase the area of planting and landscaping along the northern edge.

Barratts were keen to stress that no planning application had yet been submitted. They claimed that there would be consultation with the village before any such application was drawn up.

Location

Green Pits Lane, Nunney

After the Parish Council meeting the representatives of Barratt Homes and Pegasus took questions from members of the public.

Some people made clear their opposition to any development at all in the village, but most had reservations about the size and location.

David van Dyke, the member of Mendip District Council who represents Nunney, thought it likely that the village would have to accept some new housing over the coming years.

He advised the village to discuss other alternatives and possibly find a solution that would suit more people.

Local Plan

Coincidentally Mendip District Council have rented the village hall next Thursday from 2pm to 8pm to present stage 2 of the Local Plan to the public.

This may have something interesting to say about the scale and location of future developments and everyone who is interested is urged to visit it.